Catalogue entry

Perhaps one of the most visual arresting watercolours in the sketchbook, Turner here evokes the mushrooming of cumuli in an expansive sky with sea below. The sheet has been saturated with wash, allowing the brush to leave an impression of its fibres in every stroke and daub. Turner may have also used his figures here as a means to apply and manipulate wash. Turner’s palette of grey and cerulean blue evokes the dim and sombre light of a storm at sea.